There has been known a vehicular drive apparatus including first shifting portion and second shifting portion that are capable of performing step-variable shifting among a plurality of gear positions. For instance, a drive apparatus for a hybrid vehicle, disclosed in Patent Publication 1, corresponds to such a vehicle drive apparatus.
With such a vehicular drive apparatus disclosed in Patent Publication 1, a power transfer path, extending between an engine and drive wheels, has a first shifting portion that can be selectively shifted into a continuously variable shifting state, under which the first shifting portion is rendered operative as a continuously variable transmission, and a step-variable shifting state under which the first shifting portion is rendered operative as a step-variable transmission with two stages. Further, a second shifting portion is structured with a step-variable automatic transmission that allows the rotation of an output rotary member of the first shifting portion, i.e., the rotation of an input rotary member to which a drive force delivered from the engine is applied, to be shifted in multiple stages for transfer. With the first shifting portion placed in the continuously variable shifting state, the vehicular drive apparatus is rendered operative as a continuously variable transmission. With the first shifting portion placed in the step-variable shifting state, furthermore, the vehicular drive apparatus is rendered operative as a step-variable transmission with multiple stages having the number of gear positions greater than that of the second shifting portion.    [Patent Publication 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-206136